Police briefs, Aug. 22, 2007

Car collides with motorcycle ELYRIA — A motorcycle driver was flown to a Cleveland hospital Tuesday after a collision with a car at Foster Avenue and Furnace Street, police and firefighters said.

The victim’s name was not available late Tuesday.

Firefighters, police and LifeCare paramedics were called to the intersection at about 9:38 p.m.

Witnesses at scene said the motorcycle rider — a white man — was headed north on Furnace Street when his bike hit the driver’s side of a black sedan that was westbound on Foster Avenue but was turning onto Furnace Street.

Traffic approaching from both directions on Foster Avenue has a stop sign, while the northbound traffic on Furnace Street — the direction the motorcycle was traveling — has no stop sign.

Witnesses said the collision into the rear driver’s side of the car sent the motorcycle and rider careening about 30 feet north, where the motorcycle struck a tree on a tree lawn.

Police find handgun in home with girl, 4, and newborn ELYRIA — An Elyria man and woman were arrested Monday after deputies discovered a loaded .22-caliber handgun under a sofa cushion in the apartment they lived in with two children, a deputy’s report said.

Syreeta Thomas, 26, and Michael Lewis, 24, were both charged with endangering children, while Lewis was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Two deputies arrived at their High Street home just before 11 a.m. Monday to serve an arrest warrant on Thomas, the report said.

When they arrived, they discovered Lewis also had a warrant for his arrest, and they handcuffed him and placed him on the sofa while a deputy went to check on a 4-year-old girl and newborn baby who were in the apartment. When deputies noticed Lewis fidgeting on the sofa, they searched it and found the .22-caliber handgun loaded with five rounds, the report said. The weapon was easily accessible to anyone in the apartment, including the 4-year-old child, the report said.

NASA credit card stolen from employee’s vehicle CARLISLE TWP. — A NASA credit card was stolen from a NASA employee’s vehicle while it was parked at his Carlisle Township home Thursday, and the thief used it to purchase $31 worth of McDonald’s food, a deputy’s report said. Deputies were called to the 48-year-old man’s Robson Road home at about 7 a.m., where the man — an employee at NASA Glenn Research Center in Brook Park — had discovered that someone broke into his 1997 Mercury Villager that was parked in the driveway, the report said.

While the man’s personal credit union ATM card and a MasterCard were among the stolen items, the thief also made off with a NASA government MasterCard, the report said.

The man checked the government credit card’s account and discovered it had been used at 4:30 a.m. that morning at a McDonald’s off state Route 2 on Broadway Avenue near Lorain, the report said. Deputies say they’ll review security video taken at the McDonald’s, the report said.

Man hangs himself in park NEW RUSSIA TWP. — A 31-year-old Oberlin man hanged himself at a picnic pavilion in New Russia Township on Tuesday, county Coroner Paul Matus said.

Deputies were called to the picnic pavilion at a park on Butternut Ridge Road about 4 p.m., where they found the man dead. No foul play was suspected, Matus said. The man hanged himself by attaching cord or rope to a rafter in the pavilion; he was discovered by a woman at the park, Matus said.